Chimpanzee and Gorilla Tour, Uganda Rwanda 7 days

Day 1; Transfer to Queen Elizabeth

When your guide comes to pick you up on the first day, he will brief you about the trip before you start driving to Queen Elizabeth National Park. You will have a few stop over points and the first one may be at the Equator in Masaka to take some pictures, water experiments or at the Mpigi Mpambire drum makers where you can get souvenirs before you proceed to Queen. You will have lunch somewhere in  Mbarara and then proceed, when you enter within the park reserve, you will enjoy an enroute game drive so keep looking for wildlife like the kobs, birds and also will see the great lakes of Lake Edwards and Lake George as well as the Kazinga channel. Your dinner and overnight will be at the lodge of your choice;

Budget – Bush lodge/Institute of Ecology / Simba safari lodge/ mweya hostel

Moderate – Hippo Hill Lodge / Ihamba Lodge/ Marafiki safari lodge

Up Market – Mweya safari lodge/ Jacana safari lodge/ Katara Lodge / King Fisher Resort/ Ishasha wilderness camp

Day 2; Game drive and lunch cruise

You will go for an early morning game drives, there you will see animals like the lions, buffaloes, kobs, Elephants, hyenas, warthogs, birds’ hippos and many more savannah wildlife. At mid morning, return for breakfast to have full breakfast if you just had a cup of coffee in the morning. You will have some time to relax or walk around the lodge as you wait for your lunch and after that you will go for an afternoon boat trip along the Kazinga channel, a natural channel between Lake Edward and Lake George. You will see variety of birds, so many hippos, crocodiles, buffaloes, among so many others. You will head back to your lodge for dinner.

Day 3; Chimps tracking in Kyambura Gorge and drive Transfer Bwindi

Immediately after your breakfast, you will proceed to Kyambura Gorge in the southern part of Lake George to start your chimpanzee trek exercise. It takes about 3-4 hours. Kyambura gorge serves as a bumper for the north-eastern part of Queen Elizabeth National park. After the chimpanzee trekking, you will have your lunch and then drive Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park passing through Ishasha sector where you will have the opportunity to see variety of tree climbing lions. Bwindi has got variety of birdlife and therefore a good place for the bird lovers to visit, high population of mountain gorillas and other primates species, incredible flora, among so many other unique features. Your dinner will be at the lodge.

Budget – Buhoma Community bandas / Bwindi View bandas /Nkuringo campsite tents /

Moderate- Gorilla mist lodge/Lake Kitandara camp/ Nkuringo camp site/ Wagtail Eco lodge/ gorilla safari lodge

Up market- Engagi lodge/ Buhoma lodge/ Gorilla Resort camp/ Traveler’s rest camp/ Silver back lodge

Luxury – Gorilla Forest Camp/Clouds Lodge/Gahinga Volcanoes Lodge/ Volcanoes Bwindi safari Lodge

DAY 4; Gorilla tracking

After breakfast very early in the morning, the guide will drive you to the park headquarter before 8 am for briefing with the ranger and registration too before you start tracking. You will carry your packed lunch since tracking takes 1-10 hours and then will be given one hour to spend with the gorillas when you encounter them, within that hour you listen to them grumble to each other and marvel at the sheer size of the silver back which is the dominant male so as to give you the best memories of the Africa gorilla tour. Later you will head back to the lodge for dinner.

DAY 5; Transfers to Rwanda.

When you are done with breakfast, you cross the boarder into Rwanda and head straight to Musanze best known as Ruhengeri and when you get there you will have clear views of Volcanoes National Park, the Virunga Mountain together with the four peaks and the twin lakes namely Burera and Ruhondo. Dinner and over night will be at either;

Budget –Virunga hotel/ Kinigi Guest House

Standard – Mountains Gorilla Nest Lodge / Mountain gorilla View Lodge

Luxury – Volcanoes Lodge / Sabinyo Silver Back lodge

Day6; Gorilla tracking in Rwanda

Just like the case was while in Uganda, you will go for gorilla trekking in Pac National des Volcanoes before 8 am and with your packed lunch. So after a short briefing about the gorillas, you and your ranger guide will enter the park looking for the rare mountain gorillas. The rangers will take you through the forest and provide you with all the information about the different flora and fauna in the park, he will help you locate the gorillas depending on the group you are looking for since he will know where they were the previous day. Once you meet them, you will have an hour to spend some time sitting with them in the forest. You will watch them play, feed their little ones. At the end of it, you will have to drive back to Uganda and spend the night in Kabale and that is where your dinner will be.

Budget – Bushara Island camp

Standard – Bunyonyi Overland camp/ Arcadia cottages

Luxury – Habuharo Island Camp/ bird nest lodge

Day 7; Back to Kampala

You will have breakfast in the morning, you will go for a canoe ride on Lake Bunyonyi so that you will have an opportunity to see various islands which are homes to different bird species, so those that are interested in bird watching should visit the island of Bunyonyi. Then later you will drive back to Kampala and go straight to the airport to catch your flight back home.